It is well-known that in order to grow crops it is desirable to first prepare a seed bed. For example, it is generally believed to be desirable to break-up the soil into fine particles, remove all growing weeds, insure that there is not undue compaction of the soil, and to remove or chop up the residue from the previous years crops. Because of this conventional knowledge, it has been customary to prepare the seed bed in various ways which may include plowing, disking, harrowing and many other combinations of operations in order to prepare a seed bed so that a planting apparatus can be used to actually plant the seeds into the ground.
Due in large part to the increases in labor, fuel and machinery costs, there has been a trend moving away from having several operations over the field to reducing the number of passes over the field to an absolute minimum. To this end, many minimum tillage planters have been developed, and one of the most commercially successful of these planters is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,709 to Fleischer.
Besides the advantage of conserving fuel costs and labor, there are many other advantages to minimum tillage operations. For example, when crop residues are left on top of the ground, rather than turning them under with a plow or the like, organic matter breaks down much more rapidly into beneficial soil components. In addition, the residue helps prevent wind and water erosion and reduce moisture loss from the soil due to evaporation. As an added benefit, the residue between the rows keeps the soil cooler. Since the weed seeds are between the rows, it means a slower start for weeds.
The conventional tillage ideas of working the soil many times accomplishes many unnecessary results. For example, it takes the weed seeds from the top of the ground and plants them in the soil. It stirs up the soil so it will dry out faster. It requires more man hours, it increases the cost, it compacts the soil. It requires more fuel and sooner equipment repair and maintenance needs. Furthermore, tests have proven that yields are not affected by the amount of working the soil gets. Also, it has been determined that the natural weathering processes of freezing and thawing, wetting and drying, are constantly at work during the winter and spring to prevent soil compaction, so it is not as necessary as it was once thought to be to turn the soil over.
One of the common problems with minimum tillage planting devices is that the residue left over from the previous years crop often interfers with the planting operation. Numerous devices have been devised for the purpose of trying to get this residue out of the way in front of the part of the planting shoe which essentially digs a trench for permitting seeds to be dropped therein. If a consistent trench cannot be made or if the trench has residue from the previous years crop therein, then the planting operation also becomes inconsistent; and consistent, even planting of the seeds is necessary for a maximum yield.
In particular, long corn stalks have been a problem in the past because they interfer with the making of a consistent trench for the seeds to be dropped into. For that reason, some times a chopper is used prior to the planting operation. If this chopping operation can be avoided, labor and fuel costs will be decreased. The devices in front of conventional minimum tillage planters have heretofore not completely solved the problem of corn stalks or the like interfering with the planting operation.